[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       alpine-info
Subject:    Re: [Alpine-info] Alpine on Mac (again)
From:       Sascha Vieweg <saschaview () gmail ! com>
Date:       2011-04-18 9:04:32
Message-ID: alpine.OSX.2.02.1104181052500.44703 () vyvhz ! ybpny
[Download RAW message or body]

On 11-04-18 05:19, Aidan Wilson wrote:

> This goes back to a thread from December '09 about setting up 
> Mac to pipe mailto: URIs to alpine. Much debate was ignited 
> wherein people started bashing on macs.
>
> So without getting into any of that, I'm seeking an update. Has 
> anyone successfully set up their mac to send mail via alpine?
>
> The behaviour I'm used to from my Ubuntu machine is this:
>
> 1) Alpine is running, or not, it doesn't matter.
>
> 2) clicking a mailto: URI runs a script that I had set up, which
>    essentially opens Alpine in a new terminal window and pipes
>    the argument of mailto: into the to: field (presumably some
>    grep ninja skills could parse the rest of the mailto:
>    protocol, but this works pretty simply)
>
> 3) hitting send results in the mail being sent and the window
>    closing or returning to a prompt (probably depending on what
>    bash flags you have on the script).
>
> This doesn't appear to be rocket science, but my Mac at work 
> (which doesn't have X11, by the way, which is often the case 
> with institutional machines apparently) fails to do anything 
> when clicking mailto: links. I have tried hardlinking the 
> alpine.command file to something like alpine.app (and recreating 
> the whole [app].app/Contents/MacOS/[app] file structure) so that 
> it's recognised as a program by firefox (otherwise it is greyed 
> out).
>
> Has anyone got any other suggestions?
>
> On a related matter, it is only Firefox's preferences that 
> appear to be able to specify a program to use to send mail. I 
> thought that Mail.app was responsible for sending these links to 
> a program, but I can't get into its prefs without setting up a 
> mail account - which I don't want to do.
>
> So is there a global 'mail handling preference' on a mac?

Hm, I haven't followed the discussion back in 09 but have you 
already read the man page of "open"? I am speculating that this 
would be the engine that you need to achieve your goal. Using open 
and Terminal.app and alpine (from the command line, that is, not 
"alpine.command"), you could create an application using 
AppleScript. The application invokes Terminal.app, wich in turn 
invokes "open" on startup, and that in turn runs alpine. You could 
play around and check the "open" and AS manuals to prevent from 
invoking a new instance of alpine if it is already running. 
(Another opportunity to create applications containing simple 
scripts is Automator, just to mention.) Firefox is capable of 
defining a mail application to use for mailto's. If you seek for a 
system wide solution, there is a PreferencePane around called 
"DefaultApp" (Rubikon, but don't nail me). Once you set up a 
properly working alpine.app, you might try setting this the 
default for mailto's using this PreferencePane.

Good luck and post results.

*S*

-- 
Sascha Vieweg, saschaview@gmail.com
_______________________________________________
Alpine-info mailing list
Alpine-info@u.washington.edu
http://mailman2.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/alpine-info
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]